House Minority Whip Hoyer charged Tuesday that Republican tax
cuts enacted over the last four years have added layers of
complexity to the tax code, offering a preview of the Democratic
message as House members debate tax policy this week and next.

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said Tuesday he would push fellow Democrats to put an overhaul of the U.S. tax system at the top of their agenda if they regain control of the House in the November elections.

An extraordinary political drama played out this past week in the U.S. House of Representatives as Democratic and Republican lawmakers feuded over a proposal aimed at watering down part of a key law passed after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

The annual appropriations process in the U.S. Senate has ground to a halt as Republican leaders put off floor action on federal-budget matters until at least September for potential political gain, but they are playing a dangerous game.

Ending months of suspense, Sen. John Kerry on Tuesday turned to his vanquished primary election rival, fellow Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, as his running mate for this fall’s presidential campaign.

A deep rift in the Republican Party has left Congress unable to pass a budget this year, raising the probability that, for the third time in three decades, lawmakers will not agree on a detailed blueprint for government spending and tax policy.

House Republicans endured a rare legislative setback last week, as dozens of their own Members voted with Democrats to kill a budget enforcement measure that some GOP leaders were reluctant to bring to the floor in the first place.

A vote in Congress overwhelmingly backing President Bush’s diplomatic assurances to Ariel Sharon suggests bipartisan and Jewish unity — but a closer reading reveals some fissures between Democrats and Republicans, and among pro-Israel lobbyists.

Angered over last week’s vote on corporate-tax measure, Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) penned a stern letter Monday to his Caucus, chastising Democrats for voting against the party on a procedural vote — and blasting Republican business lobbyists for allegedly misrepresenting Democrats’ positions on the controversial bill.

Senate Majority Whip McConnell and House Minority Whip Hoyer said Thursday they are working to reprogram as much as $2
million in FY04 funding to boost the startup operations of the newly formed Election Assistance Commission.

A Democratic congressman plans to file a wide-ranging ethics complaint today against House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), shattering the remnants of a seven-year-old, unwritten ethics truce between the two parties and possibly nudging the House back toward a brand of political warfare that helped topple two speakers.

In his third-floor office in the Capitol, Steny Hoyer is plunked down in a big red armchair, his left leg crossed over his right. He is wearing a dazzlingly white shirt and a red patterned tie. There are two pens in his breast pockets and visions of grandeur dancing in his head.

Adopting a tactic their party bashed as a stunt in the watershed 1994 elections, House Democrats plan to unveil their election-year themes by rolling out a “Contract with America”-style legislative blueprint in September.

Democrats celebrated Stephanie Herseth's capture of a Republican-held seat in South Dakota on Wednesday, their second takeaway of the year, and claimed it portends greater gains in the battle for control of Congress.